Fulfill Your Quest For Global Domination Paradox Development Studio is back with the fourth installment of the award-winning Europa Universalis series. The empire building game Europa Universalis IV gives you control of a nation to guide through the years in order to create a dominant global empire.

February 27

Hotfix for the 1.10 patch to address some high priority issues, primarily balance problems with Liberty Desire and feedback in regards to exploration. We'll also be looking into ways to improve the exploration interface for the next proper patch.

- Japanese Daimyos no longer start at high liberty desire in 1444.
- After Privilegia is revoked, Imperial vassals will no longer have hundreds of liberty desire from relative power to liege.
- AI now gets the correct amount of attrition.
- Manual exploration is now enabled for everyone.
- Fixed a bug that was causing countries warning you to be called in even when not declaring war on their neighbours.
- Europe will now properly get tradegoods in Custom Setup.
- Fixed some inconsistencies in Aggressive Expansion between tooltip and actual effect.
- Disabled most nation forming decisions for Custom Nations to prevent player-made AI nations from tag switching.
- Consolidate Regiments button will correctly enable to let you maximize the number of full strength regiments (as it was before).

February 26

After a long voyage through rough seas (game development is hard), the newest expansion for Paradox Development Studio’s hit empire-building game Europa Universalis IV has arrived! El Dorado lands with a nearly infinite array of new possibilities and alternate histories, and explorers can begin their voyage into uncharted territories today on PC, Mac and Linux for $14.99.

Take a look at the fabled El Dorado in the launch trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjK5520IP9YWith its focus on the empires of South and Central America, El Dorado includes three new major Native American faiths for the Aztec, the Maya and the Inca. Sacrifice vassal kings to stave off doomsday as the Aztecs or endure centuries of cyclical rise and fall as the Maya.

If your game choices tend more to exploration and plunder, you can send your fleets on specific missions across the seas or task your conquistadors with a quest to find the lost Seven Cities of Gold!

But, if you tire of “history,” you can now create your own kingdom with the brand-new Nation Designer included with El Dorado. Choose your starting provinces, your national ideas, your starting ruler and everything else you need to prove that you know the value of real estate and strong leadership. Then, for a new thrill, randomize the map and fight a France reborn in Manchuria.

Digital Extreme Edition

STAR AND CRESCENT - 50 new Muslim themed event pictures, as well as several new events for the Muslim nations

HORSEMEN OF THE CRESCENT UNIT PACK - 12 unique cavalry modes for the Ottoman, Mamluk, and Persian nations. This enhances the visual experience of EUIV.

CONQUEST OF CONSTANTINOPLE MUSIC PACK - 3 tracks containing 10 new minutes of music masterly composed by Andreas Waldetoft

Steam Workshop

About This Game

Fulfill Your Quest For Global Domination

Paradox Development Studio is back with the fourth installment of the award-winning Europa Universalis series. The empire building game Europa Universalis IV gives you control of a nation to guide through the years in order to create a dominant global empire. Rule your nation through the centuries, with unparalleled freedom, depth and historical accuracy. True exploration, trade, warfare and diplomacy will be brought to life in this epic title rife with rich strategic and tactical depth.

Main Features

Make your own decisions: Nation building is completely flexible and the possibilities are endless.

Use your Monarch Power: Experience the new system of monarch power where your choices are influenced by the caliber of the man or woman you have at the top and will direct the ebb and flow of gameplay.

Experience history coming to life: The great personalities of the past are on hand to support you as you make your mark on thousands of historical events.

Turn the world into your playground: Enjoy hundreds of years of gameplay in a lush topographical map complete with dynamic seasonal effects.

Experience the all new trade system: The trade system adds a new dimension to the great trade empires of the period. Gain control of vital trade routes and make the wealth of the world flow to your coffers.

Bring out your negotiating skills in a deeper diplomatic system: Use coalitions, royal marriages and support for rebels and explore the possibilities of the new unilateral opinion system.

Engage in Cross-platform Multiplayer: Battle against your friends or try the co-operative multiplayer mode that allows several players to work together to control a single nation with up to 32 players. Featuring hotjoin, improved chat, new matchmaking servers and support for a standalone servers.

A rather complex grand strategy game, you pick a country to control starting from the year 1444 all the way to 1821. There isn't any fixed objective to aim for: it's a good idea to try to get the achievements offered (such as world domination), as most are a real challenge to earn.

Each country is divided into provinces, allowing movement of you armies from one to another in real time - nothing here is turn based. Battles aren't controlled by you, as in total war: you make your army walk onto the same province as an opposing army, and the battle outcome is decided in part by random dice rolls, and in part by factors you can influence, such as generals, terrain, morale of troops. The same can be said for naval battles, where different types of ships behave differently depending on what sea province you are fighting in, if they are in the open ocean, or in a closed sea (such as the Mediterranean).

Diplomacy is fairly well fleshed out, countries can have a number of different governments, such as feudal monarchies or merchant republics, all that give different bonuses and maluses, and some (such as republics) offer the possibility to choose what type of leader you want, so as to give you more of a certain type of monarch points. You can offer alliances, royal marriages, support rebels, create false claims on provinces you don't own to give you a "casus belli" (a reason to go to war) among other things, the list is really really huge.

Monarch points are a "limiting factor" in the game, you have 3 different types of monarch points (Administrative, Diplomatic, Military), each that serve different purposes. For example, military points can be spent to buy a new general, or to treat a province harshly if rebels are likely to rise up there. (As of the Art of War update, rebel mechanics have changes slightly. Instead of each province possibly spawning rebels depending on a percentage, now each rebel faction has a counter that goes up or down depending on your country's stability and province modifiers, such as nationalism, culture or religion. Once the counter reaches 100%, multiple stacks of rebels spawn). Other points can be used to change your capital, annex vassals, gain provinces in peace deals, create buildings and much more. The gain of monarch points depend on your ruler, that can give from 0 points each to 6 point each month. By spending some of your income, you can also hire advisors, that can add to your monthly monarch points income, and grant you some nationwide bonuses.

Trade is also a large factor in the game, you have merchants and you can choose to send them to various trade nodes, and you can choose if you want them to try and collect money from that node with a malus, or to send the money that you collect upstream, to a different node where you can collect from. Having colonies and trade agreements with other countries helps your trade income, while being embargoed reduces your trade in nodes that the country embargoing you controls.

Paradox has created a lot of DLC for this game, but with each DLC comes a vast amount of free content as well, so it might be advisable to buy the base game before buying DLC, so as to see what you think about the game before commiting too much. If you choose to play online with a friend that owns the DLCs, even without owining the DLCs yourself, the game activates them, so its possible to try them out before you buy. It would also be a good idea to try and watch a tutorial beforehand (Arumba on youtube comes to mind), as the game doesn't do a great job of explaining all it has to offer.

It's a very time-consuming, and occasionaly frustrating game, but I found that the more I played it, the more I enjoyed it: I'm constantly learning new things I can use to my adantage, and the game is becoming more satisfying due to that.

Never thought that a strategy game would be the most thrilling gaming experience I have.

But scrupulous, hour long planning and carefully forging alliances and marriages, while keeping an eye on which direction rival countries are sending their diplomats to, because one wrong move can turn your plans to dust, is much more addictive than you might think. The relief you feel, after a long term plan of yours is finally set into successful motion, is not describable.

One of the few games where careful planning and thinking is actually rewarded. No simple rock-paper-scissors battles like in other strategy games. Even though my enemy may have the bigger and more advanced army, I might have won the war through logistics already.

Everything that needs to be said about this game, has actually been said already, but I just can't pass on the chance to show my appreciation for it. I'm +90hrs in, and I'm still finding new ways to play this game, everytime I start it up. It's complex, deep and rewards the player that thinks on a larger scale. One of the best purchases I made in years.

In Europa Universalis IV you play a powerful sorcerer that acts as the "guiding hand" for the nation. The spells you cast draw on three mana pools: Paper Mana, Bird Mana, and Sword Mana. Bird mana is used to make peace deals, genocide cultures, and stop your people from whining about war weariness. Paper mana, in combination with a gold sacrifice, can be used to cast construction spells, in addition to making a province you gained two years ago a core part of your nation somehow. Sword mana is used for enchanting rebel factions to keep them in line. You generate mana for these pools by sucking the life essence from your monarch and his cabinet of advisors. Be careful, though, as the ones that generate the most mana tend to die rather quickly. You'll frequently see your 6/4/5 monarch die by age 30.

You'll notice that most of the spells are involved with either war or keeping your people from whining about war. Don't worry, that's by design. There's nothing to do if you aren't at war.

There is a button in EUIV that allows you to "change culture" in a province. It costs Diplomatic power based on how deeply rooted the culture is in that province, and once it is completed you will have instilled your nation's primary culture in the province. The game tells you that the benefits of having your nation's culture in all of your provinces include higher taxes received from your citizens, and lower risk of revolts. So, of course you click the button. Who wouldn't want that?

What you may not realize is that by clicking that button, you are not introducing the local people to your nation's way of life. You are systematically wiping that culture off the map. You begin the slaughter of an entire people.

Genocide is literally a click away. And you, as a leader, don't even give it a second thought.

I have played this game over 20 hours more than Dark Souls, which was my most played steam game for a long time, so it's 20 hours better, even though I don't know what 1 hours equals in review points. At least it has a higher metahour score in my library. This the Dark Souls of Grand Strategy Games, since you need a Dark Soul to play it, at least in MP.